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Florida dealer, collector takes home last Oldsmobile for $42,000

The last Oldsmobile built in 2004. In 1901, the Oldsmobile brand produced the very first mass-produced car. Photo courtesy of State Line Auto Auction.

Tuesday, Jan. 02, 2018, 03:26 PM

By Chris Hart-Williams Staff Writer

CARY, N.C. -

The last Oldsmobile ever built sold for nearly double its original price during a Dec. 15 sale featuring the historic vehicle.

A dealer from Florida took home the last Oldsmobile — a dark cherry 2004 Oldsmobile Alero with only 29 miles — along with the final Oldsmobile Cutlass and Ciera models, says Jeff Barber, owner of the State Line Auto Auction that hosted the sale.

In a phone interview with Auto Remarketing on Dec. 18., Barber declined to offer specifics on the selling price.

In the phone interview, Barber said the buyer has his own large Oldsmobile collection awaiting the arrival of the three historic vehicles.

Over a decade after its debut at the Lansing Assembly Plant in April 2004, General Motors and General Motors Financial decided to sell the last Oldsmobile and the two other commemorative models after their stay at the GM Heritage Center.

“Every year a group of several interested employees including executives go over the Heritage collection inventory,” GM Heritage Center manager Greg Wallace said via email ahead of the sale. “The intent is to keep only the crown jewels and sell selected properties at auction. We then take the proceeds and improve our collection by acquiring historically significant properties we need.”

The Oldsmobile brand’s last model was produced by GM from 1999 to 2004. Its 1901 to 1904 Curved Dash model was the first mass-produced car.

The final Cutlass and Ciera came from GM with just 107 and 127 miles, respectively, according to Barber.

Prior to its time at the GM Heritage Center, the last Oldsmobile was also on display at the R.E. Old Transportation Museum, according to a news release from State Line.

After rolling off the assembly line at the Lansing Assembly Plant in Lansing, Mich., the historic Alero was signed by the Oldsmobile the assembly line employees who built the car.

There were 500 commemorative editions of the Alero model built in 2004, Wallace said, including the last — No. 500.

Oldsmobile sold a few hundred commemorative editions of each of its models the same year, and GM currently has more than 100 historic Oldsmobiles in its collection spanning from 1896 to 2004, according to Wallace.